The increasing demand for very-large-scale-integrated (VLSI) semiconductor devices has made imperative the development of lithographic techniques capable of producing patterns of one micrometer or less. At the present time, one micrometer is about the practical limit of linewidth that can be achieved photolithographically with accuracy and reproducibility. Linewidths less than one micrometer are being produced experimentally, however, particularly by X-ray lithography. The cost for equipment for X-ray lithography is exceptionally high, however.
In accordance with this invention, a technique has been found to produce elongated structures having a linewidth substantially below one micrometer utilizing presently available lithographic, e.g. photolithographic, techniques.